Signs of the Times

Charlie Edwards, Th.D.

  

While I grieve about what I see taking place in my beloved country (United States of America – the land of freedom granted to us by our Constitution), I cannot help but feel the excitement of the worldwide events unfolding before my eyes, all relative to Biblical prophecy. Please let me explain:

When I received Christ as Savior back in 1974 my life took an abrupt change in course. I began to learn the Bible. I developed an insatiable thirst for a better understanding of this, the greatest of all books. It is an infinite book of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. It's always fresh. There is always something I missed before, always more dots to connect. Best of all the prophecies in the Bible all come to pass. It is the oldest of all books (Jn. 1:1) and it manages to stay more up-to-date than any news network.

As a young Christian, I was exposed to new ideas and vocabulary. Words like redemption, imputation, justification, prophecy and others fascinated me. Early on I heard sermons on the end times and prophecies of the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist, and the second Advent of Jesus Christ. Back in those formative years I expected those things to be just around the corner, at any moment, certainly within a few years. I wanted the church to be "caught up" (1 Thes. 4:17) to meet Christ in the air right away. That was decades ago and the trumpet has yet to sound. As the years came and went I relegated these prophetic events to somewhere out there in the next generations. But in the last few months I have had a radical change of heart!

It was the pandemic we are all experiencing that started the change in my thinking process. Had it been confined to China or some other distant region of our world I wouldn't have been alarmed to the degree that I am now. The fact that it is a major GLOBAL event in the history of the world magnifies its significance relative to Biblical prophecy. Then when I experienced the election of 2020 and the results thereof, the handwriting was plainly on the wall (Dan. 5). I will refrain from commenting on this election in this paper. Suffice it to say that it was just one more giant leap toward fulfilling prophecies in scripture written thousands of years ago. With all the changes we've seen in the last fifteen months we have to realize that our world and specifically the USA is changing at a much higher rate than in the last one hundred years. It is accelerating exponentially toward the one-world-government and global economic system of the coming Antichrist.

          So, I find myself right back where I was forty-seven years ago with renewed interest. Once again I am listening for the sound of a trumpet. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thes. 4:16-18).

          There are some who believe the Church will go through the Tribulation or at least part of it. You need not worry about this if you are a born-again Christian ("Ye must be born again" Jn. 3:7). The Church or the "Body of Christ" will most definitely NOT go through any part of the Tribulation. Why? Simple answer: The Tribulation is a seven-year period of judgment for Israel, not the Church. The sins of the Church were judged at Calvary by the finished work of Jesus Christ. That's why the Tribulation is called "Jacob's time of trouble" (Jer. 30:7). It's called "Daniel's seventieth week." Gabriel visited Daniel as he made his great penitential prayer for the nation of Israel (Dan. 9). Why does God want to judge Israel? Read my book: “Israel, God’s Peculiar Treasure,” available on Amazon.

          This present world belongs to the "prince of the power of the air" (Eph. 2:2). He is also known as "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4). Remember what he said to Jesus Christ at the beginning of Christ's ministry? "And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. …" (Lk. 4:5-8).

          This paper is too short to provide all the scriptural documentation for the catching away of the Church, the Tribulation, and Second Advent of Jesus Christ. Suffice it to say, right now we are on the brink of a catastrophic event, more precisely the catching away of the Church (Rapture), to trigger a global panic, the likes of which this world hasn't seen since Noah's flood (Lk. 17:26). Not only will people of all walks of life simply disappear, but there's much more. Some will be driving automobiles. Some will be piloting aircraft. Some saints will be in the OR operating on patients in surgery. Crain operators, bus drivers, railroad engine operators, and anyone who has received Jesus Christ as their Savior will vanish from this planet. All babies and children under the age of accountability will disappear without a trace, irrespective of whether the parents are saved. And that's not all. Just before that takes place all the graves of the saints will be opened and decayed bodies will go up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thes. 4). This all takes place unannounced and in a moment, the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52). It's going to happen and we're very close.

          Many people don't believe this will happen. They think it's just another myth from the "book of myths." That's certainly what the people said about Noah when he preached to the nonbelievers about a coming flood – rain coming down from the sky and overflowing the mountains. "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth" (Gen. 6:11-13).

          Once the Rapture takes place and the world-wide panic begins, there will be terror and turmoil all over the world. There will be a global economic collapse. There will be wars and lawlessness everywhere. There will be a young man (approximately 30 years old) who will rise in world power and will lead armies (Rev. 6) and magically bring a measure of order to a world of chaos. He will be connected to the Roman church (Rev. 17:9). He will be connected with the Arabs and the oil countries (Rev. 6:6). He will be overweight (Job 15:27). He could very well be a homosexual (Dan. 11:37). He will befriend Israel and form a covenant with them, possibly allowing them to build a temporary temple on Mt. Moriah (Mt. 24:15, Rev. 11:1-2). He will then break that covenant (Dan. 9:27) and declare himself god halfway through the Tribulation and demand to be worshipped by people all over the globe (2 Thes. 2:4). He will declare war against all Jews and have the combined militaries of the United Nations hunt them down to destroy them. In comparison, Antichrist will make Adolf Hitler look like a Sunday school teacher (Jer. 16:16). There is much more on the Antichrist in the Bible, but we'll stop here.

          I look for things to continue their spiral (circling the drain), picking up even more velocity towards the climax of this current dispensation. If you don't care anything for God, the Church, or Jesus Christ, I have some good advice: Get serious about the reality of hell and eternity. Once the trumpet sounds and the Body of Christ (the Church) is pulled out of this world, your opportunity to get saved is GONE. Paul wrote, "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thes. 2:9-12). "For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). The Biblical signs of the times are all around us. How can anyone possibly miss them? YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THE RAPTURE. YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO INTO THE TRIBULATION. If you don't know Jesus Christ personally, RUN TO HIM NOW! (Rom. 10:13, John 1:12).